Resumen de The effects of intelligence, social class, early development and preschool experience on school achievement of Puerto Rican children

Frances Boulon Díaz

• The effect of seven independent variables on school achievement was explored with the following research question: How do intelligence, social class, early motor and language development, pre-school experience, gender and composition of household contribute to school achievement of children in Puerto Rican public schools?. The subjects were 65 children aged 9 to 11 years, studying in grades four to six, at seven urban publics schools. They belonged to the sample of 2200 children selected for adapting the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children Revised (WISC-R) for the Puerto Rican population. Multiple regression analyses showed that IQ (Beta = .66) and Social Class (Beta = .30) explained half of the variance in Gran Point Average (GPA) (Adjusted R2 = .49). Pearson r´s between GPA and Social Class (.40) and GPA and IQ (.66) were significant at the .01 level.When boys and girls were compared, parental characteristics and social factors and girls were compared, parental characteristics and social factors had an impact on boy´s GPA and IQ that was not observed for the girls. The results support the salient influence of social class and a stronger effect of family variables on boys´ achievement than on girls´GPA.